I recently upgraded my main PC and passed some hand-me-downs into my secondary/fileserver box. This covers the main PC, previously discussed in Project QBG.

When I started, the system had a few changes that werenâ€™t documented in the QBG thread. The big upgrade that prompted this new thread was going to an Opteron on a new motherboard. The components are:

This system is not so different from the old build. However, the Opteron runs much cooler and offers Coolâ€™nâ€™Quiet. The Asrock is not the mobo for monster overclocks, so the CPU is at 2.5GHz and 1.45V. With low load, it throttles back to 1.4GHz and 1.1V. Câ€™nâ€™Q seems to hurt the voltage stability and maximum clocks a little, but Iâ€™m not going to complain about 40% more than stock!

With the Smartdrive, the system is extremely quiet. Seek noise is barely audible with AAM set for performance. With three very quiet fans, Iâ€™d expected the DDC to be a huge noise issue, but itâ€™s actually quite comparable to the VGA Silencer. Perhaps I got the golden sampleâ€¦

This setup has taken its share of abuse over the years, and Iâ€™m considering replacing the Genie for my next build. The Genie is such a nice case, that I might just get a new one if theyâ€™re still available. OTOH, its intake could be more open, and Iâ€™m tempted to try a custom case. Weâ€™ll see what happens. For now, this is a satisfying PC in performance and noise.

Last edited by HammerSandwich on Sat Jan 13, 2007 10:34 am, edited 1 time in total.

Temperature testing results are in. These numbers all came from uncalibrated Speedfan reports, so they're not very accurate. I started Prime95's In-place test, let the reading stabilze (typically 35-40 minutes), then added or removed part of the intake. After the temps staibilized again, I reverted to the previous config to verify the baseline. I also kept a thermometer near the intake. There was no inconsistency on any of these readings.

From stock configuration, removing the front grille improved temps from 43C to 41C. Also removing the filter dropped further to 39C. This case has a pretty good filter, but it's still too small, even with minimal airflow.

I couldn't pass up Newegg's X850 XT for $90 after MIR, so there have been some changes. This new vidcard smokes the 9800Pro (duh!), but the stock cooling unit is absurdly loud. The fan emits an annoying bearing growl regardless of RPM, and it took a full 5 hours before I couldn't handle any more. I'm sure someone here can relate...

No one ever bought the Maze4 GPU block I was supposed to sell for a friend, so I decided to watercool the GPU. Because the GPU block and my DDC have 3/8" barbs, I changed the CPU block's inlet to 3/8". The 7/16" tubing from CPU to rad and back to pump was not changed, so the conversion was pretty quick. (Note that I would change everything to 3/8" but that would require cutting the barbs from my heatercore...) The not-quite-final result looks like:
See the hi-res pics here, here and here.

As I finished bleeding the system, the pump seemed louder than the last time I had the case open. I sandwiched the DDC in foam and reconnected it to the Sunbeam Rheobus, both of which help. Reducing the pump voltage to ~9V makes the greatest difference in noise level by removing the "edge" from the sound, and it does not affect temperatures very much.

Too much changed for valid comparisons of temperatures, and both fans still run at ~5V. Under normal gaming loads, the CPU and GPU both report about 50C in a 21C ambient, and I have no complaints about stability. One nice feature is that the fan speeds never change (at least not audibly), so the system's noise level is constant except for HD seeks.

Having the CPU and GPU in the loop really allows watercooling to shine. Both chips receive adequate cooling from a quiet 120, which ventilates the case as well! While adding the GPU block did increase CPU temperatures about 5-10C, the system's noise level actually decreased thanks to the removal of the VGA Silencer. Achieving this with aircooling would be very challenging, though having no pump would allow slightly higher fan speeds at the same noise.

There's still room for improvement, of course, but this system keeps getting better and better. A lot of the credit belongs to the water.

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